The Coalition is engaged in further hypocrisy. 1. The Coalition (both under Howard and more recently through Morrison’s own words) has supported Nairu as an appropriate venue well before Nairu had signed the UN Convention on Refugees. 2. The current Abbott policy still does no...
Continue reading →
On all recent polls, it appears that the Coalition is still unbeatable. But Newspoll suggests that Abbott’s leadership of the Liberal party is viewed with suspicion by the electorate – for good reasons. First, Abbott has still to reveal how he is going to close the budget blac...
Continue reading →
Gillard is still the best person to lead the ALP (there is no one else). How deal with the loss of trust following her broken promise on carbon tax? This is a difficult question but it must be resolved. Abbott keeps making stupid remarks and then saying “it was an inappropriat...
Continue reading →
In the USA (a presidential election year), there is a considerable debate on how much emphasis government policy should assign to economic growth (properly interpreted to encompass all externalities and market failures) and how much to income and welfare distribution. The argu...
Continue reading →
Now that my days of writing and blogging are over, I am spending my time reading books. I have almost finished reading John Howard’s book on Lazarus Rising, which is easy to read and generally quite enjoyable (although at times self-righteous). One thing about the book struck...
Continue reading →
Paul Krugman looks again at the relationship between deficit reduction, wages and employment in the USA. h ttp://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/wages-and-employment-yet-again/ Yglesais says that a decline in deficit could lead to further employment expansion if it led to...
Continue reading →
Attached is a post by James Kwak . It strongly rejects a comment by Caplan and Beaulier that Behavioral Economics will Undermine the welfare state by expanding the set of choices. Caplan and Beaulier believe that poor people are more inclined to make irrational judgments becau...
Continue reading →
I might have preferred for the Government to take a risk with the surplus in 2012/13, and perhaps to have a go at middle-class welfare, but that would have been politically too hard. It has been seen as “an intellectual defeat” to the Coalition – but is it not a fact of life w...
Continue reading →
I have often worried about whether promoting ‘efficiency” – in the economic sense – ensures maximum well being where it makes some people better off but others worse off - even if the Kaldor-Hicks criterion is fully met e.g. by ensuring those who gain from the policy could pot...
Continue reading →
I hate to say this but all my forecasts over recent months seem to be proving right. First, we have over-done monetary policy (see my contributions in Club Troppo, January 29 and February 4th 2010). Second, our expansionary fiscal policy was on the right scale (although misman...
Continue reading →
Rudd has back-flipped on a number of government policies – the ditching of the insulation rebate scheme, junking the promise to build 260 childcare centres, the ETS decision (now postponed) and perhaps some wasteful spending on education. He has also had to toughen the asylum...
Continue reading →
Robert Manne’s new book (co-edited), “Goodbye to All That? The failure of neo-liberalism and the urgency of change”, is an attack on neo-liberalism. There are several academic political philosophies currently in vogue: libertarianism (or its opposite): acute market interventio...
Continue reading →
It is surely elementary that the collapse of the financial system in 2008 caused a huge downturn in private debt and that public debt was forced to get into the act to help prop up demand. If one combines the sum of private and public debt, Australia will look high relative to...
Continue reading →
In December 2009, the official ABS Labour Price Index was running at about 3% per annum. This represents a continued trend decline in private sector wage rates (although less so for the public sector). Wage rates refect the subdued labour market. In September 2009, about 26% o...
Continue reading →
One needs a full cost-benefit analysis (including all externalities such as secondary effects n health premiums) to form an intelligent view on whether to sell Medibank Private. In the meantime, it makes no sense to say that reducing the level of government debt quickly is ess...
Continue reading →
It is relatively easy for economists to debate efficiency issues e.g. when we discuss privatisation. But when we are discussing a host of particular economic issues - such as the distribution effects of labour market deregulation, or the role of health care, or the role of inv...
Continue reading →
The headlines all warn that core inflation "remains high" and that the futures market is predicting a 78% chance that the RBA will increase rates next week. We need to keep things in perspective. First, after three annual increases in interest rates and with the gradual easing...
Continue reading →
Although labour demand is not quite keeping up with jobs, the labour market remains broadly stable. This is hardly surprising, given the strong fiscal and monetary stimulus. This is now expected to decrease gradually in the next few months. Yet we are still left with very high...
Continue reading →
A recent version of the Taylor rule specifies that the Federal interest rate target should have a threefold aim: (a) to curb inflation (b) to avoid excess unemployment and (c) stop prospective asset prices. With a rising Australian dollar (and with an under-utilised labour mar...
Continue reading →
There are two interesting pieces in todays blogs and newspaper articles. The first is from Robert Reich http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/09/is-government-helping-or-hurting-business.html He makes the evident point that the Dow is hitting the 10,000 mark be...
Continue reading →
It seems opportune to revisit my 2006 paper, Equal Opportunity in Australia: myths and reality1. I wrote this brief up-date for NewCritic (put out by the University of Western Australia). Ones life chances depend in good part on ones innate qualities and character, but are dep...
Continue reading →
This question is posed by Bruce Bartlett in Economists View . The answer depends on how you define a conservative. Is it someone who believes in small government? Is it someone with an antiquated, minority philosophical stance - such as on Says Law relative to Keynesianism? Do...
Continue reading →
Michael Stutchbury addresses Rudds assault on neo-liberalism in The Australian, 28/7/09. Stutchbury has some good points to make but he is, like everyone else in The Australian, obsessed with the debt question and the justification for active (discretionary) government interve...
Continue reading →
There is a thoughtful article in the Financial Times by Paul De Grauwe which is found in http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/478de136-762b-11de-9e59-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss It notes the big disagreement between two opposing camps on macro-economics (the Ricardians versus Keynesians...
Continue reading →
The article on Social Liberalism is: http://www.cis.org.au/Policy/winter09/links/argy.pdf Any comments welcome.
Continue reading →
Andrew Norton, from the Centre for Independent Studies, kindly invited me to submit an article for the Policy magazine. It relates to the choice between classical Liberalism and what I called Social Liberalism. The link to the article is : http://www.cis.org.au/Policy/winter09...
Continue reading →
Paul Krugman has an article on the need to stay the course - Paul Krugman makes a few telling points against the proposition that Obamas fiscal package now needs to be gradually pulled back. The Fed is raising the monetary base: does this risk a resurgence of inflation? The mo...
Continue reading →
Today's Canberra Times has a very pertinent article by John Pitchford on the benefits of the fiscal stimulus (no links). He makes three points: (1) Rudd's anti-recession economic stimulus package has effectively prevented much lower output, profits and employment (200,000 Aust...
Continue reading →
Earlier in the week, I raised the question of what might happen to Turnbulls argument if we did a counter-factual calculation - and in particular what might happen to debt levels over the next few years if the Government chose to do nothing (in response to the budget). Nigel R...
Continue reading →
Costello went through all the documents relating to the summit, to see if there was anything at all on the global financial institutions. He said he looked hard and found nothing . He failed to look hard. This is my submission .
Continue reading →
I raised the issue a few weeks ago of what might happen to GDP output and public debt if the discretionary stimulus package were simply cut off in mid-stream. I argued that this would lead to higher numbers on jobless benefits and much lower corporate profits. Could it also pr...
Continue reading →
The respected Institute of Fiscal Studies has raised the spectre of a two-nation Britain, after finding that some of the poorest households are facing much higher inflation rates than average. You may catch a preview of the publication in http://www.ifs.org.uk:80/publications/...
Continue reading →
The following is taken from http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/03/ken-rogoff.html---. It is a comment by Paul Krugman to the many people, such as Ken Rogoff, who are anxious to pin our economic problems on the deficit. He says: The stimulus package wont prol...
Continue reading →
Here is a piece by Mike Steketee on Superannuation . He lists all the horrific inequities noted by Darren Wickham, arising from our present superannuation arrangements. For example: contributions to super are taxed at a flat 15 per cent; this provides no tax break at all for l...
Continue reading →
An interesting debate has kicked off on executive remuneration in Economists View It is not yet clear how Obamas proposals on executive remuneration will pan out. It may include a $500,000 cap on salaries for financial institutions receiving aid - subject to a reporting mechan...
Continue reading →
Turnbull has now upped the ante. At the political level, Australia is now fighting (a) an aversion to public sector deficits and (b) the appropriate choice between taxation cuts v/s other forms of spending. During the Howard years every household wanted to go into debt, while...
Continue reading →
Fiscal policy has become the subject of an intense ideological warfare among economists. Over the long term - i.e. over the business cycle as a whole - economists do not agree on whether the structural budget should aim for a surplus or a deficit. This is understandable as sev...
Continue reading →
I feel quite angry with Pope Benedict message that "saving homosexual or transsexual behaviour was as important as protecting the enviornment" and that "God's creation was about protecting man from himself". Even some of my own grand children, who are devoted catholics, feel t...
Continue reading →
Thank you, Rafe, for sending me the October 8 article by Ergas. There is also a new article in todays Australia -- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24730487-7583,00.html?from=public_rss I was originally looking for hard evidence - that Kevin Rudd is alleged to hav...
Continue reading →
There are currently three schools of thought on how best to address the current global crisis. One takes the view that it is all due to more expensive financing- not due to decreased demand. Peter Auer, Raphael Auer and Simon Wehrmuller want to rely exclusively on reducing the...
Continue reading →
A special question was inserted in the latest Newspoll. It found that 56% of voters would be concerned if the federal budget were to go into deficit, as a result of further government spending in the new year. Women (64%) were the most skeptical about deficits, while men (50%...
Continue reading →
Many people have drawn false parallels between protectionism and deficit hawks. Whereas a retreat from protectionism generally causes pain to many people (and calls for a compensating device), a retreat from recession-driven deficits is an unmitigated bad thing for everyone. S...
Continue reading →
After reading todays column by Michael Stutchbury (Tanner needs to sharpen his razor gang to stay in surplus), where he urges that the Government should not fatten the budgets structural bottom line, I remain as bemused as ever. The Governments fiscal strategy is clearly defin...
Continue reading →
The original policy, as announced on 13 October, stated unambiguously that to ensure that taxpayers are not disadvantaged by this guarantee, the Australian Government will charge financial institutions for providing the guarantee. The charge will be similar to an insurance pre...
Continue reading →
A recent report by Paul Krugman warned that we are about to witness the mother of all currency crises in emerging markets. http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/10/is-a-currency-c.html He says emerging markets are "being swept under by a currency crisis that is...
Continue reading →
The new OECD report on income inequality and rising poverty in most OECD countries is just out. This is the conclusion. Social mobility is lower in countries with high inequality, such as Italy, the UK and USA, and higher in the Nordic countries where income is distributed mor...
Continue reading →
When debating this issue, John Quiggin ( September 27, 2008 ) made the claim that neo-liberalism had failed (relative to social democracy). Paul Frijters ( recent Club Troppo piece ), on the other hand, dismisses the topic as largely irrelevant. One reason for this disagreemen...
Continue reading →
In the USA, Lawrence Summers tells us that the case for a fiscal stimulus is stronger than at any time in my professional lifetime. And most people other than a few crazy republicans agree with him. Paul Krugman and Greg Mankiw both add their voice: counter-cyclical measures a...
Continue reading →
There is good piece in The Australian today by Christopher Joye Central Banks arent immune to mistakes. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24397965-7583,00.html He makes three points. First, that the Reserve Bank has consistently under-estimated the severity of...
Continue reading →
This is light years away whats happening in other banking systems around the world. It is night and day. This is the RBA of Australia discussing our current financial plight. Lets accept that the banks are better safeguarded than the USA (although they may be hit very hard if...
Continue reading →
They look like banks (as they borrow short, are highly leveraged and lend and invest long and in illiquid ways) and thus are highly vulnerable to bank like runs. But unlike banks, they are not properly regulated or supervised and dont have access to deposit insurance or the le...
Continue reading →
I find little evidence of any RBA remorse or regret for what it has done to our economy. Although contributing to a very low GDP growth, a shocking malaise in the housing, retail and low-leverage business credit and rises in unemployment, the RBA remains almost complacent. Nor...
Continue reading →
Australia may be lucky and sail through the boisterous economic seas without any significant impact on unemployment. However, while we may have seen the worst of the credit crisis, I would rate this outcome as only a 1/3 probability. Allowing for the delayed impact of earlier...
Continue reading →
One of the respondents to my earlier post on NSW electricity privatisation accuses me of a possible "ideological bias against privatisation" and proceeds to make sweeping generalisation about the benefits of privatisation.. I thought I might clear the air on this issue. I have...
Continue reading →
The AFR published a letter of mine today on this topic. It is reproduced below. It was brief so in this post I elaborate on why I think Iemma and Costa messed up their arguments very badly. M Y AFR LETTER The debate on electricity privatization in NSW has gone off the rails, w...
Continue reading →
One of my grand kids is studying economics at the University and, to help him with an essay on current macroeconomic policy in Australia, he asked me three rather pertinent questions.. 1. If there is an inflation problem which is overwhelmingly supply-side driven, as we now se...
Continue reading →
The Canberra Times published today an opinion piece of mine on a topic I have been writing about since late November and is familiar to Club Troppo readers. My original version is set out below. For various reasons, I may not be able to respond to comments quickly. Sorry. The...
Continue reading →
In an earlier blog, Mike Pepperday argued that equal opportunity programs enhance individual freedom - indeed that equality of opportunity (EP) is an essential pre-condition of effective choice and self-reliance. I instinctively agree with Mike. And I suspect most Australians...
Continue reading →
Yesterday, BG picked up one thread of the "mega blog discussion" kicked off by Don Arthur. I want to pick up another. In the discussion on Arthur's post, BG and I seemed to agree that, apart from a firm safety net which encouraged able-bodied people to work, the social policy...
Continue reading →
I did not apply to participate in the 20/20 summit but I did submit a 500 word piece on employment policy. Although Club Troppo readers would have heard my views before, the submission is set out below. I also had an interesting disagreement with The Australian editorial write...
Continue reading →
Read this piece and cry. Steketee
Continue reading →
Prompted by the exchange between Gruen and Gittins on NSW privatisation, I asked myself a much broader and pertinent question: what should be the proper role of government in the allocation of capital in Australia? At the two ideological extremes, the answer is simple. The int...
Continue reading →
On Line Opinion (OLO) asked for some ideas for the Rudd 2020 Summit. I submitted a piece which was published today in OLO . It argues that fear of inflation should not force Australia to accept a permanent army of half a million jobless persons. There are alternatives. If I ha...
Continue reading →
Picking up on Nicholas Gruens posting of 4 March on Bowles and Gintis essay ("Is equality passe?"), I notice that B and G point to opinion survey evidence that Americans, while hating welfare, support many redistribution measures which are consistent with reciprocity norms, in...
Continue reading →
In recent months, in newspaper articles and letters and in Club Troppo positings, I have been hammering the theme that (a) the short term inflation risk is largely cost push and only marginally driven by excess demand (as reflected in wages and profit margins) (b) the RBA and...
Continue reading →
In a recent post critical of a CIS article on New Zealand by Phil Rennie , Nicholas Gruen expressed "disappointment" that the author "cherry picked" to "make favoured points in line with the author's priors". Today there is an article by Professor James Allan in The Australian...
Continue reading →
Since I posted something on the equilibrium unemployment rate or NAIRU (the minimum unemployment rate consistent with low and stable inflation), it has become a really hot political topic in Canberra. I also participated in the subsequent debate on the topic in various blogs....
Continue reading →
Sweeney Tanner, demon budget barber ... Everybody is giving advice to the Rudd Government on how it can best increase its budget surplus. I doubt that really draconian measures are needed as the economy will be slowing down markedly within the next 18 months without any help f...
Continue reading →
A further rise in cash interest rates will cause great pain to many low income families at a time of mounting mortgage stress but the Reserve Bank is only interested in economic arguments so here are three reasons why it should wait a few months. * credit market are still brit...
Continue reading →
The report of the Campbell Committee* on Australias Financial System (1981) paved the way for financial deregulation of credit flows, interest rates and exchange rates. But it also recognized that a financial system could not operate effectively, let alone efficiently, unless...
Continue reading →
Unemployment fell as low as 4.3% of the work force in December 2007 the lowest rate for 30 years. While there is still much hidden unemployment (under-employed and discouraged workers), this too has been falling. Should we rejoice or have we been living in a fools paradise? Is...
Continue reading →
There have been three important developments since my last posting a statement by Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke; a policy preview by President Bush; and a comment by RBA Governor, Glenn Stevens. In this posting I also explore policy options for Australia if the worst case...
Continue reading →
It is now widely expected that the world economy will slow down in 2008 and could start to affect Australias own economic vitality in 2008/9. A mild economic slow down in Australia would not be a bad thing. It would help relieve the skills shortages, dampen wage-price pressure...
Continue reading →
Most economists like myself have come to believe that monetary policy now carries so much punch because a reduction in interest rates has a compound impact on borrowing costs, on exchange rates and on asset prices that it is unthinkable that we will have a serious recession ev...
Continue reading →
I saw Kevin Rudds National Press Conference address. At the start, there was a technical disconnection between his mouth and the words that came out which was distracting but it was soon corrected. The speech also seemed a little too long and repetitive (Rudd still lacks Howar...
Continue reading →
Australia's unemployment rate is at 33 year lows. This achievement is far from unique. It is a global phenomenon and Australia has benefited from the world boom more than most because of the impact on our export prices. That said, it is quite possible that some of the Howard G...
Continue reading →
In an earlier piece on economic freedom I raised inter alia the issue of Australias welfare to work measures under Howard. This attracted some debate and it seems appropriate to reiterate my views on the topic. Australias welfare to work measures have involved a tightening of...
Continue reading →
In the last two and a half decades, the idea of economic freedom - low levels of government intervention in the economy and wide scope for individual freedom of choice -has been widely embraced by both conservative and social democratic governments. This is because of the wide...
Continue reading →
The following article appeared in today's AFR. Australian living standards (measured, albeit imperfectly, by real net national disposable income per head) have soared by about 16% or nearly $8000 per person in just the last five years a great leap forward unequalled in any sim...
Continue reading →
Thank you all for your comments on my earlier posting ("why the electorate may want change") which sought to explain the apparent willingness of many swinging voters to switch sides. I argued then that it cannot be due to substantive policy differences: they exist (on industri...
Continue reading →
I reproduce below the gist of my letter in today's Australian in the hope that it will elicit some opposing comments on why the electorate may want to replace the Howard Government Letter follows. Imre Salusinszky (misled by hatred, 20/9/07)) forgets that there are at least as...
Continue reading →
The latest national accounts suggest that over the March and June quarters of 2007 there has been a surge in market sector productivity growth (market output divided by hours worked in market sector). The ABS tells us this is the result of an increase in market sector output o...
Continue reading →
Politics is all about compromise and trade-offs. Sensible politicians target the median voter not the extremists on either side. On that test, Labors IR package seems to get it about right. Moreover the proposed changes are transparent for all to see and contain a lot more det...
Continue reading →
I refer to my earlier posting ("well done Murdoch shame on business") regarding the current business advertisements and Steketee's critique of them. Peter Hendy, Chief Executive of ACCI, has a letter in the Weekend Australian claiming that Steketees criticisms were wide of the...
Continue reading →
While not retreating from my earlier accusations of systematic bias in the main Murdoch press, let me now strongly commend The Australians Mike Steketee for his column in todays edition of the paper. He takes on the business lobby for telling big fibs in their advertisements o...
Continue reading →
I believe that the media will play a significant role in deciding the outcome of the next federal election. In particular, the role played by the Murdoch press- which controls some 2/3 of Australias national and capital city news market will be crucial. At this stage, Murdoch...
Continue reading →
Political thought can be classified in many different ways, having regard to ones attitudes to economic freedom, the environment, personal morality (abortion, gay rights etc), welfare, income inequality, inequality of opportunity, etc. Trying to build them all into a comprehen...
Continue reading →
Many of the comments on my previous posting have been about the monetary effects of budgets. While not dismissing the significance of money supply, I prefer to look at inflation in real demand terms and hence I like to focus on the Budgets effects on aggregate demand pressures...
Continue reading →
On ABC Lateline yesterday evening (25/7/07), the Prime Minister sought to offload any blame for the ugly inflation figures in the June quarter (up 0.9% for the quarter and 2.7% over the year in underlying terms) by pointing out that his government (unlike State Governments) ha...
Continue reading →
I am prepared to give John Howard the benefit of the doubt on his Northern Territory intervention. If, over time, it reduces alcohol and drugs and child abuse (whether as a direct result of the federal intervention or indirectly by stirring the States into more vigorous action...
Continue reading →
The Prime Minister and Treasurer frequently criticize the States for going into debt and warn that it will put pressure on interest rates (e.g. see Rudd torpedoed twice: PM Weekend Australian 16-17 June). It is disappointing that the Coalition is running such an irrational lin...
Continue reading →
It is clear to everyone with eyes that the Murdoch press, and especially The Australian, is currently campaigning actively for Howard. The editorials and opinion pages do not matter but the front page stories what is covered and how are having and will continue to have a big i...
Continue reading →
Australia has had a very successful economic decade with declining unemployment, low inflation and fairly strong economic growth. Are Howard and Costello right to argue that it was mostly the Governments doing and in particular that it reflected some hard political decisions s...
Continue reading →
Reading the Murdoch Press and hearing the Mining companies, one could be forgiven for thinking the apocalypse would descend on us if Labors IR industrial relations policies were implemented. I have tried to understand what the main concerns of business and the media are and I...
Continue reading →
The Index of Economic freedom compiled by the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal has come out with its 2006 index of economic freedom. It again claims that the higher the rating the better the economic performance (measured by per capita incomes). But it uses a compos...
Continue reading →
Coalition Ministers keep telling us that WorkChoices will boost workforce participation rates and that the job situation will be much better under WorkChoices than without it. The âevidenceâ of the last twelve months is quite inconclusive: the small increase in workforce parti...
Continue reading →
ECONOMIC LIBERALISM is about means to ends, the end being to increase aggregate utility of consumers (social welfare). Starting with the premise that individual consumers are able to maximize their utility or preferences (rational man) and that it is socially desirable to maxi...
Continue reading →
This proposal is still ill-defined and it may be too early to make definite pronouncements on it but I thought I might chance my arm. First, is it needed? This is not my expertise but there are enough experts around arguing that it would have a high benefit cost ratio for the...
Continue reading →
The interesting piece by Paul Frijters on utilitarianism as a policy guide prompts me to draw attention to a recent piece I did for New Matilda and is now available on Policy Online. It tries to compare Howardâs Work Choices and welfare to work reforms with an alternative âsoc...
Continue reading →
In a letter to the Australian published today I raise two distrinct issues - both controversial. The first is whether Work Choices and Welfare to Work offers the ONLY way of boosting labour force participation or whether, as I believe, there is an effective alternative. This i...
Continue reading →
Like most Australians, I accept that immigration has delivered many good things to Australia economic, social and cultural. The Howard Government's shift in the composition of immigration from family reunion to a person's ability to fill gaps in the labour market has also been...
Continue reading →
Comparing Australia with the rest of the developed world, we have a distribution of FINAL disposable incomes that is about average. Yet, measured the same way (i.e. using the GINI coefficient), inequality of MARKET incomes in Australia (the distribution of gross incomes before...
Continue reading →
It is clear that the Work Choices legislation, coupled with the welfare-to-work measures, has strengthened considerably the power and autonomy of employers relative to non-managerial, non-professional employees. Even before Work Choices, there was a trend for earnings inequali...
Continue reading →
Today's AFR has a letter of mine on education inequality. What follows is an extended version of the letter, drawing on material from my other writings. The current passionate crusade by Howard Ministers to weed out the so-called "left-wing" bias of the education establishmen...
Continue reading →
The debate started by Don Arthur (Is bad Peter Saunders a neo-conservative?) has been very interesting and helpful (my particular thanks to Don for developing the distinction between the Hayek and Saunders positions). But as the subsequent discussion has branched out into equa...
Continue reading →
Economists have long been challenged by the question: how does one decide if a particular social program is in the national interest (to use the Prime Minister's favourite expression)? We economists talk a great deal about cost-benefit evaluations but it is never clear what go...
Continue reading →
Here's the text of a letter of mine published in the Australian today. In the last five years, Australia has enjoyed a windfall gain of nearly 50 per cent in its terms of trade. This has added tens of billions to the coffers of the Federal Budget. Here was a great opportunity...
Continue reading →
Parts 1 and 2 outlined six alternative ways of dealing with a socially disruptive economic reform. They all assumed that the postulated reform would proceed but dealt in different ways with the social consequences. In this final segment of the paper, I consider a seventh oft-o...
Continue reading →
In Part I outlined four policy strategies to deal with a reform which offered good GDP outcomes but had socially disruptive and regressive effects. All four did not require redistribution. I now look at the compensation option. Option 5: Compensate the losers The four options...
Continue reading →
Draft Economists are very good at advising on the best means of achieving given policy objectives - so long as the social objectives are clearly and fully laid out for them by the politicians. But most of the time the social goals are not specifically defined and so economists...
Continue reading →
The following opinion piece first appeared in New Matilda. Comments welcome. Many economists are fond of saying that a country can have relatively high employment or relatively low inequality - but not both. The argument runs like this. Good employment outcomes can only be ach...
Continue reading →
The following letter was published in the Canberra Times today. I sent it because I am very concerned about what is happening to political freedom in Australia. Am I being paranoic or do others share my concerns? Text of letter follows. Both Brian Toohey ("Eroding State power"...
Continue reading →
All governments keep a sensitive eye on what is happening to inequality of incomes and inequality of opportunity because they want to be seen to be fair and because sharing the nation's incremental prosperity helps bind the community together. But governments are also concerne...
Continue reading →
